According to the report, 'Bush resisted such a move for years, insisting that Russia first stop building a nuclear power station for Iran near the Persian Gulf. But US officials have shifted their view of Russia's collaboration with Iran and concluded that President Vladimir Putin [Images] has become a more constructive partner in trying to pressure Tehran to give up any aspirations for nuclear weapons.'

Bush is likely to formally announce this in St Petersburg [Images] next week on the eve of the annual summit of leaders from the Group of Eight major industrialised nations. Their joint statement would cite an agreement to start negotiations for the formal agreement required under US law before the United States can engage in civilian nuclear cooperation.

'The administration believes that both sides would gain, since it would allow Russia to import and store thousands of tons of spent nuclear fuel from US-supplied reactors around the world, a lucrative business so far blocked by Washington. It could be used as an incentive to win more Russian cooperation on Iran. And it would be critical to Bush's plan to spread civilian nuclear energy to power-hungry countries because Russia would provide a place to send the used radioactive material,' the Postreport says.

However, critics wary of Putin's authoritarian course would see it as rewarding Russia even though Moscow [Images] refuses to support sanctions against Iran. Others fearful of Russia's record of handling nuclear material see it as a reckless move that endangers the environment, the article says.

"You will have all the anti-Russian right against it, you will have all the anti-nuclear left against it, and you will have the Russian democracy centre concerned about it too," the Post report quotes Matthew Bunn, a nuclear specialist at Harvard's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, as saying.

'The US has civilian nuclear cooperation agreements with the European atomic energy agency, along with China, Japan [Images], Taiwan and 20 other countries. Bush recently sealed an agreement with India, which does require congressional approval because of that nation's unsanctioned weapons program,' the Post said.